Last week, I was honored to attend the Regional Conference for the Christian Union Church here in PNG. I rode a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle or bus) out on Monday and returned to Mt. Hagen on Friday. The meetings took place from Tuesday through Thursday all day.

The delegates at the Conference

I really enjoyed being there with all of the pastors and leaders that we work with. Every day, I woke up to the sound of a group of the pastors praying (starting at about 5:30 and going until 6:30). Then the pastors would switch to singing for a while before hearing a short devotion. Then about 7:30, we would all head over to get our morning tea and scone (roll). The meetings would run from 8:30 to 12:00, when we would break for a lunch of kaukau (sweet potato), kumu (greens), and sugarcane. We would then have meetings again until about 4:30. Supper consisted of typical Mumu food (food cooked in the ground by hot rocks): Pig, kaukau, taro, kumu, and bananas (the kind that you cook). What followed next was the best part of the day. The pastors would go hang out in their grass houses (each district had its own house) and sit around the fire talking. Each evening I would slip off and join in with a different district in their house.

Sitting and talking with the pastors is one of my favorite things to do. It is the best chance for me to really get to know them and for them to feel connected to me. Many of them start out afraid to talk to me, assuming that I am so much different than they are. But as I sit around the fire with them, joking and laughing about things or talking about something out of the Bible, I become one of them. And that is the best way that I have found to be able to make a real impact on their lives.

Pray with me for the pastors that we work with here as I do my best to disciple them in the way that Jesus demonstrated and that Paul taught about in 2 Timothy 2:2.